Housing Benefit

Mr. Weir:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the average payment to a landlord in respect of housing benefit for a one-bedroom property was in (a) Angus, (b) Edinburgh, (c) Glasgow, (d) Aberdeen, (e) Dundee, (f) Newcastle, (g) Leeds and (h) London in each of the last five years. [67328]

Malcolm Wicks:
The information is not available.

Mr. Weir:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the total cost was of housing benefit paid in (a) Angus and (b) Scotland in each of the last five years. [67321]

Malcolm Wicks:
The available information is in the table.

Housing benefit expenditure

(£ millions)

Angus

Scotland

199596

(27)

907

199697

10

967

199798

12

1,014

199899

13

1,039

19992000

14

1,054

(27) Not available.

Notes:

1. Data for Angus relate to the Angus council area. This unitary authority was created on 1 April 1996 and comparable data are not available for the previous year.

2. Figures are rounded to the nearest £ million.

3. Figures are consistent with those published in the Chancellor's Budget Report, April 2002.

Source:

Final audit returns made by local authorities to DWP.

Benefit Payments

Mr. Weir:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many persons in receipt of retirement pension, in each parliamentary constituency in (a) Scotland and (b) Wales receive payment of their benefits (i) directly into their bank accounts and (ii) through local sub-post offices. [58125]

8 Jul 2002 : Column 760W

Mr. McCartney:
The table sets out information on how retirement pensioners in parliamentary constituencies in Wales and Scotland are paid. It is not possible to say exactly how many people receive their payments at a post office because some people choose to pay a girocheque directly into a bank/building society account.

The information supplied is a snapshot during September 2001 and separates payments made by order book and girocheque, which are normally cashed at Post Offices, and payments made directly into bank/building society accounts by means of automated credit transfer (ACT).

RP cases by method of payment and parliamentary constituency

Thousands

September 2001

All

Can be cashed at the post office

Paid by ACT

Wales

564.0

396.9

167.0

Aberavon

13.3

10.7

2.6

Alyn and Deeside

13.1

8.1

4.9

Blaenau Gwent

12.9

10.5

2.4

Brecon and Radnorshire

14.7

9.4

5.3

Bridgend

15.3

10.5

4.8

Caernarfon

13.6

9.8

3.7

Caerphilly

13.7

10.5

3.1

Cardiff Central

14.8

9.2

5.6

Cardiff North

12.0

7.3

4.8

Cardiff South and Penarth

14.7

10.3

4.5

Cardiff West

13.2

9.0

4.2

Carmarthen East and Dinefwr

15.2

11.4

3.9

Carmarthen West and South

15.2

10.0

5.3

Pembrokeshire







Ceredigion

14.8

8.9

5.9

Clwyd South

12.4

9.2

3.3

Clwyd West

18.6

11.0

7.6

Conwy

15.9

10.0

5.9

Cynon Valley

11.8

9.8

1.9

Delyn

12.6

7.4

5.1

Gower

16.2

10.9

5.3

Islwyn

12.3

10.3

2.0

Llanelli

16.1

13.3

2.9

Meirionnydd Nant Conwy

10.9

7.3

3.6

Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney

12.0

10.3

1.8

Monmouth

17.8

10.1

7.7

Montgomeryshire

11.5

7.8

3.8

Neath

13.8

11.3

2.5

Newport East

13.9

9.5

4.5

Newport West

14.0

9.5

4.5

Ogmore

11.3

9.3

2.1

Pontypridd

13.9

10.5

3.4

Preseli Pembrokeshire

14.9

9.4

5.5

Rhondda

14.8

12.9

1.9

Swansea East

14.0

11.4

2.6

Swansea West

15.9

11.2

4.7

Torfaen

13.6

10.3

3.3

Vale of Clwyd

15.8

10.4

5.4

Vale of Glamorgan

17.2

10.5

6.7

Wrexham

11.7

7.8

3.9

Ynys Mon

14.5

9.9

4.6

Scotland

911.9

570.3

340.8

Aberdeen Central

11.4

6.8

4.5

Aberdeen North

10.8

6.6

4.3

Aberdeen South

14.2

7.4

6.9

Airdrie and Shotts

11.9

9.0

2.8

Angus

15.5

8.9

6.6

Argyll and Bute

13.6

7.8

5.8

Ayr

15.4

8.9

6.5

Banff and Buchan

13.2

9.0

4.2

Caithness Sutherland and Easter Ross

10.4

6.4

3.9

Carrick Cumnock and Doon Valley

15.6

10.9

4.7

Central Fife

13.7

9.0

4.7

Clydebank and Milngavie

13.6

7.9

5.7

Clydesdale

14.8

9.8

5.1

Coatbridge and Chryston

11.3

8.9

2.4

Cumbernauld and Kilsyth

8.9

5.9

3.0

Cunninghame North

14.4

8.6

5.8

Cunninghame South

10.3

7.2

3.1

Dumbarton

12.4

7.7

4.8

Dumfries

15.8

9.1

6.7

Dundee East

15.5

10.1

5.4

Dundee West

12.7

8.4

4.3

Dunfermline East

11.4

8.2

3.2

Dunfermline West

11.3

7.5

3.8

East Kilbride

15.3

8.7

6.6

East Lothian

15.4

9.0

6.3

Eastwood

17.0

7.6

9.3

Edinburgh Central

11.3

6.6

4.7

Edinburgh East and Musselburgh

13.5

8.5

4.9

Edinburgh North and Leigh

10.9

6.3

4.6

Edinburgh Pentlands

12.7

5.8

6.9

Edinburgh South

13.5

7.6

5.8

Edinburgh West

15.7

6.7

9.0

Falkirk East

13.1

8.7

4.4

Falkirk West

12.4

7.9

4.4

Galloway and Upper Nithsdale

15.2

8.7

6.5

Glasgow Anniesland

13.8

9.5

4.3

Glasgow Baillieston

10.1

7.9

2.2

Glasgow Cathcart

11.4

7.3

4.1

Glasgow Govan

8.5

6.2

2.3

Glasgow Kelvin

9.4

6.7

2.7

Glasgow Maryhill

9.9

8.0

1.9

Glasgow Pollok

12.9

9.7

3.1

Glasgow Rutherglen

12.8

9.0

3.8

Glasgow Shettleston

10.4

9.2

1.2

Glasgow Springburn

11.7

9.7

2.0

Gordon

13.0

7.5

5.6

Greenock and Inverclyde

13.0

8.8

4.1

Hamilton North and Bellshill

9.5

7.3

2.2

Hamilton South

9.9

7.3

2.6

Inverness East Nairn and Lochaber

16.6

8.8

7.9

Kilmarnock and Loudoun

15.7

10.5

5.2

Kirkcaldy

12.9

8.6

4.3

Linlithgow

11.1

7.2

3.8

Livingston

10.3

6.6

3.7

Midlothian

11.1

7.1

4.0

Moray

13.9

8.1

5.8

Motherwell and Wishaw

13.2

10.2

3.0

North East Fife

14.8

7.9

6.9

North Tayside

17.3

9.4

7.9

Ochil

11.8

7.0

4.8

Orkney and Shetland

7.6

4.9

2.7

Paisley North

11.2

7.7

3.5

Paisley South

13.0

8.9

4.1

Perth

16.0

8.2

7.8

Ross Skye and Inverness West

13.4

7.9

5.5

Roxburgh and Berwickshire

13.3

7.8

5.5

Stirling

12.7

6.8

5.9

Strathkelvin and Bearsden

13.9

6.4

7.4

Tweeddale Ettrick and Lauderdale

12.6

6.4

6.3

West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine

12.5

6.5

6.0

West Renfrewshire

11.1

6.9

4.1

Western Isles

5.1

4.2

1.0

8 Jul 2002 : Column 761W

State Earnings-related Pension Scheme

Mr. Webb:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many letters have been issued to those people who will be affected by the reduction in SERPS on the sliding scale; and on what basis those people were identified. [60620]

Mr. McCartney:
Up to and including 27 May 2002, 2,907,190 letters have been sent to people who will be affected by the reduction in SERPS on the sliding scale.

People were identified from their date of birth held on the National Insurance Recording System (NIRS2).

8 Jul 2002 : Column 762W

Older People

Mr. Webb:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether he will (a) assume the title of champion for older people and (b) chair the Cabinet Sub-Committee on Older People. [62000]

Mr. McCartney:
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions looks forward to taking up the title of champion for older people. My right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister will publish a list of Cabinet Committees and their membership shortly.

Compensation Recovery Unit

Adam Price:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the administrative cost of the coal section of the Compensation Recovery Unit was in 2001. [62553]

Maria Eagle:
The administrative cost to the Compensation Recovery Unit of processing miners' compensation cases during the financial year 200102 was £1,171,497. The total amount recovered in the same period was £15,424,590.

New Deal (Ambition)

Mr. Clappison:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the answer of 12 November 2001, Official Report, column 570W, how many participants in the New Deal have received training through Ambition IT Initiative since January. [64355]

Mr. Nicholas Brown:
The Ambition initiatives are demand-led, and are aimed at training disadvantaged people for good quality jobs. The availability of jobs is key to their success. In the latter part of 2001 there was a reduction in the global workforce in the IT sector as a number of key companies scaled down their operations. At the same time, a number of American companies which employ people in the UK froze recruitment as a result of the events of 11 September. The Ambition:IT initiative was consequently put on hold in December 2001 so that the Department could conduct a review of the skills requirements of the IT sector in the UK.

The review has concluded that the demand for people with IT skills is now most acute in the public sector. The programme has therefore been refocused on this sector and we now expect to start new deal participants in training from this autumn.